The Egypt Tourist Authority has decided to Rebrand their logo and whole theme, so they went to JWT for their services to come up with a new and unique theme. I like the overall look and the advertisment itself is pretty good. I think Kuwait needs to rebrand a lot of its different entities with some of the advertising agencies, it would do them good for a refresh.
Link: UnderConsideration
It seems Dubai has turned into the Center of Credit Card thieves and credit card fraud, I got a call from the bank late Thursday night if I made transactions in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and a few online transactions. The amount was 460 KD, I told them I only used my Credit Card once in an ATM in Dubai at a National Bank of Dubai ATM in the Mall. How in the hell could my card have been copied from that terminal, I honestly looked at it and scrutinized it and I still got taken. The bank said it isn’t a problem and they will clear it up, I won’t get charged but they found the transactions to be odd. I use this credit card once in a blue moon, so all these charges seemed odd to them. The first time it happened with my NBK Check Card and that was a huge inconvenience, since they changed my account numbers and all the details, but this time it was my credit card. I try to travel with sufficient cash to Dubai but sometimes I have to use my credit card and I decided to use my credit card instead of my check card so I’m lucky that the amount wasn’t huge and the bank reacted quickly. They told me two days for a card replacement and I will be able to use the card normally.
I kept hearing from my cousin and a few others about Fatburger so I decided to try it out while in Dubai. Its located in Dubai Mall on the basement floor towards the end, its a ridiculously long walk to it but really worth it. When I walked up the staff had an American trainer and it turns out this is the first time it opens outside the Middle East. There menu is simple but you get a lot of items to add or remove from the burger, there was a guy from the states telling the people working there how to cook and how to talk to people.
I ordered one Fatburger Double and Chilli Cheese Fries while my friend ordered a regular Fatburger. It looked good, it look fresh and at the end it tasted as good as it looks. It wasn’t oily or heavy at all, after I was done with the burger I felt that it wasn’t enough, I was done with it quickly, so I ordered another one to satisfy my hunger. That was a damn good burger, it tasted fresh, and it didn’t feel heavy at all once you are done with the meal.
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I had a four meetings packed into one day, trying to keep it as efficient as possible, from the moment I land then I would have enough time to eat and then head out back to the airport and take off again. That was a ridiculous mistake on my part, I have done a lot of day meetings and back in the same day, never have I done four long meetings in one day. By the time I was heading to the airport I was too tired to car and too dizzy to pay attention to anything, I just wanted to get home and pass out at the end of the trip. I was so tired I stretched out on the Wataniya flight back and passed out before take off and woke up as we were landing, why can’t we land with the backs reclined, it makes no difference at all. The one comfort is knowing that as soon as the plane arrives I exit the plane and get in my car and drive home in less then 5 minutes.
I used to fly British Airways a lot a few years ago, but ever since they had their first set of protests back around 2006 things haven’t been going so well for them. British Airways used to be my most preferred airlines to travel on, there is something that I like about them and I always enjoyed walking around Heathrow Terminal 4, maybe it was the bookstore, or HMV, or WH Smith which kept me so entertained over the past years of going through it. I got this downgrade from British Airways from a Gold Member to a Silver, and now from Silver to Blue and I’m not really annoyed with them as much as I am saddened by the state it has reached. Its not what it used to be, and I loved their lounges and I still like their style. Especially recently I remember they have had some insane price increases which has led me to try other airlines such as Lufthansa and Emirates, and I have had some good experiences. Still I don’t feel that I am losing much from the downgrade as I never really felt any benefit from their Mileage program.
After spending a week in Bahrain we had a chance to try a few different places and I’m surprised how much the food tastes good in Bahrain. I love the Adliyah area, so many restaurants to choose from, easy to walk around, they even made it nicer for walking and they opened up an Art Gallery. We had an area like that previously but it has long been destroyed by the First Ring Road project, but thats something else. Sometimes you feel like something good and some times you want fast food, so we had to try Dairy Queen and Jasmys, but DQ is better especially the ice cream. Out of the nice restaurants these are the ones we tried and were very good
Restaurants of Choice:
- Memories of China – Probably the best Chinese restaurant in the Middle East
- Cafe Italia – Really good Italian food and I love the interior of the restaurant even though they are a bit slow
- Meat Company – Can’t go wrong with a good steak
This makes entering and leaving from Cairo Airport so much easier, I signed up for the VIP service through my travel agency and it turned out to be even better then I expected. When you leave the plane there is a bus that takes all the passengers to immigrations, but in my case a car was waiting for me and takes me straight to the VIP terminal.
You even have your own immigrations and they go get your luggage for you. I just waited in the lounge for everything to be stamped and to go through simply, and within 5 minutes I was out the door and on my way to the hotel. They have made it so easy and simple to go through that it is really worth it to use this service, and once you experience it you will not stop using it. The lounge area is very nice with separate rooms for all the guests and you can still sit in the middle area instead of the nice room. There is free wireless available for your use all over the VIP Terminal, I think that this is the best service they could have provided to passengers arriving into Cairo.
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Going to Egypt I had about three meetings to take care of, two the day I arrive and one the next morning, its one of those compact trips, all in one shot. I took this trip because I had to have this one meeting, and then other two just piled on. I knew one thing when going to Cairo, to ask for the VIP service at the airprot which is $100 for arrival and departure, and your travel agent can arrange for it, you have to ask for the VIP terminal. You walk through and sit on a counch while you wait for your passport to be stamped and your bags to come out, but in my case I only had one carry on, so out the door I went, I was outside within 11 minutes from departing the plane which is fantastic.
I have a simple rule when in Egypt, I only stay at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza, this rule is there because I have suffered food poisoning every time I eat anything outside, but staying at this hotel I can order any food in mind and I’m sure its safe. Even when I had a dinner meeting I said that I’m not hungry and kept drinking water, as soon as I got back to the hotel I ordered room service, I have had too many bad experiences to take a risk. Too much work to do in Kuwait, so I flew back the next afternoon to get back in time to eat some food, and I passed out the whole flight back because I was so exhausted from this short trip and waking up early.
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Three weeks of planning, 30 Kilograms of meat, 7 kilograms of chicken, 8 boxes of water, 4 boxes of soda, 1 Landcruiser, 2 FJ Cruisers, and 7 guys. That is what it took to make an adventure of a lifetime. The perfect group of people to take a nomad trip to the most beautiful desert in Saudi, sleeping outside in the night sky is amazing, the sky is so clear you don’t need lights at night, the moon lights up the whole area its fantastic. You feel your chest clearing up from all the fresh air coming in, no telephone signal in the areas we were in. First night we came in and found our main camp site, and for each night we had a different camp site going in deeper and deeper into the desert. We had the Garmin 276c with the updated Saudi Desert maps, so we can coordinate our locations, walkie talkies are a must for these trips, and all the fighting takes place across the radio waves.
Took us about 5-6 hours to get to the first camp site, we started the fire to get some tea going, the smartest thing we did was have dinner before heading out to Saudi. You need a certain list of equipment for the cars, cooking, sleeping, precautions, and emergencies. I had an Iridium Satellite phone which was only to be used during emergencies, it looked like something out of 24 to call those bomber planes in the air. Then there was the air pump, jump start cables, battery charge unit, and tow cables. The tow cables I got were rated at 30’000 lbs with huge hooks at the end, they look menacing and we had to use it once because of an incident but I won’t mention that. Then there was a case that I was facing a flat tire in the rear tire, but we kept pumping up the tire and it would last the whole day so I decided not to change the tire, but when we got to Kuwait I found that the tire had two screws and one piece of would in it, those Yokomahas are tough tires, not the best but they did a fantastic job.
There were stretches of sand that we were flying over 100 kph per hour as if we are in a Dakar Rally, it was insane and my blood was pumping to an extreme point, it feels like you are floating on clouds when you are going over the soft sand. Then there was the amazing white and black camels all around, so many different kinds in all the dunes area, these camels didn’t care about us what so ever. These are some majestic dunes, they are at least 7 to 10 stories tall with dune up dune, with deep basin’s inside of them, even with pictures they don’t do reality justice, and the sand is so clean and orange, its amazing. There was even some dunes at about 20 stories high but I would have probably flipped the car backwards trying to climb it.
We had a three part day, morning for breakfast then we had out, then we find another location for afternoon break, then we head out in search for another location to find the best sleeping place. There was one point where we picked a location which was slightly slanted, and in the morning I woke up with one guy’s knee in my back and the other guy’s foot in my chest, luckily everyone was in a sleeping back. The most amazing thing was seeing the clear sky it was beautiful, you can see all the stars, you can see clearly until the horizon, it was a sight to wake up to in the morning as well. We got some rain the first night, it was a continuous light drizzle but the fire lit up and we slept perfectly fine, a little water didn’t hurt. The best part of the afternoon and evening stops was playing Risk, we played strategically making our alliances, and playing unexpectedly, I was more a Kamikaze during that game then trying to win, my goals were offense oriented, I tried killing off certain people with nothing else in mind. People were shouting, treaties were made, and troops were decimated, it was fantastic and the best time to play that board game.
The best part about it is how hungry we got, or pretty much how hungry I got and at night I would devour the food. Some of us would pass out right after, and I woke up few times at night, and I would feel some ice on top of my sleeping back but my morning it would all be gone. Some nights it got really cold but overall the weather was fantastic and I loved every moment. This was probably one of the funnest trips I had in a long time, I want to do it again, and I have a few ideas in mind for the next trip.
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Grilling on the go is the only definition of cooking in the desert, coal is your best friend and we had a lot of meat to cook. One of the surprises was one of our friends brought with him some prepacked Lambchops and Chicken Tikka from Q8BBQ. The meat were all marinated and placed in the ice box, rosemary garlic lamb chops and chicken tikka. The lamb chops tasted amazing, they were juicy and perfect, the chicken tikka was probably the best I have had in a while.
This is after we had a few hours of driving and got really hungry, cooking was simple when it came to the grill. We use the duwah as the base, burn the coal on it to prepare the coal, and start grilling on it. That day one of the guys when high up top one of the dunes to get some phone signal but it was nearly impossible to get any signal, the picture with the sand dunes and a small black dot is the guy sitting up top. Then there were the people who were hungry and sitting directly in front of the grill. After that we clean up, pack up, and keep driving around the dunes enjoying the sand.
Link: Q8BBQ
Contact Number: 99978227
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